1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for combining images of a terminal and, more particularly, to an apparatus and method for combining images of a terminal capable of capturing broadcast images received by a terminal and combining them.
2. Description of the Related Art
A mobile communication terminal is a cutting-edge wireless communication device allowing a user to wirelessly communicate with another party through a communication path set by a mobile switching center (MSC) while freely moving in a service area served by a base station which belongs to a system to which the user's terminal has subscribed and registered.
In general, the mobile terminal is used for communications for relatively short durations and remains in standby state for a relatively long time, resulting in a low usage rate. Thus, in order to increase the low usage rate and user convenience, various supplementary services have been developed for the mobile terminal.
Of the supplementary services, a wireless Internet connectivity, text messaging, multimedia messaging, wireless online games, and the like, are received by the user from a service provider through wireless access, while a phone book, a message editor, a calculator, games, a camera, infrared transmission features, Bluetooth® connectivity, setting of ringtones, and the like, are pre-installed in mobile terminals by phone manufacturers.
Also, supplementary services include digital multimedia broadcasting (DMB) service functions. The DMB is based upon DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting) and being commercialized as a so-called “mobile TV” feature. While the DAB relates to digital audio radio broadcasting, the DMB relates to digital radio broadcasting that encompasses visual and audible multimedia contents. It can be said that DAB has evolved into as has been re-named as DMB with the added characteristics of multimedia broadcasting. The DMB can be divided into a terrestrial DMB (TDMB) for transmitting broadcast signals from land-based systems, and a satellite DMB (SDMB) for transmitting broadcast signals from satellite systems above the earth.
The TDMB is a mobile multimedia broadcast system providing high quality voice and image services to users at virtually anytime and anywhere, by extending the concept of radio broadcasting from ‘audio broadcasts’ to ‘visual and audio broadcasts’. With its excellent mobile reception characteristics, the TDMB can transfer diverse contents such as text, music, and video through a mobile terminal, PDA, or other wireless devices having broadcast reception capabilities.
The SDMB can provide audio and supplementary data, or a multimedia broadcast service including video content to a fixed (land-line) receiver or a mobile receiver through a satellite system connection. Since the SDMB can provide various qualities of audio broadcast services at low cost through use of satellite technology, it is anticipated to be one type of next-generation service that can cover wide geographical areas, to thus remarkably enlarge the coverage of existing broadcast services. Accordingly, the SDMB has emerged as a representative service of the on-going ‘digital convergence’ trend, whereby communications services and broadcasting service merge together.
Equipment and devices for providing the DMB service includes a mobile communication terminal having a digital multimedia broadcast reception function, a car terminal mounted in a vehicle to receive DMB signals, and a home terminal for receiving DMB signals through fixed devices installed at the home.
The DMB system can broadcast voice type signals in a digital manner by dividing a given frequency band according to a CDMA method, and employs radio channels for wireless access, TV channels for broadcasting multimedia type signal, and data channels for broadcasting data signals.
Each channel in DMB broadcasting is used to broadcast different contents according to set themes or topics, and various channels, such as news channels, sports channels, music channels, entertainment channels, drama channels, movie channels, religious channels, cultural channels, department channels, educational channels, or the like, may exist.
FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary construction of a general digital multimedia broadcast system. As shown, the general digital multimedia broadcast system comprises a car terminal 10 for receiving broadcast signals, a mobile communication terminal 20, a home terminal 30, a TV broadcast station 40 for transmitting broadcast signals, an Internet server 50 of a service provider for storing broadcast contents, a service provider 70 for generating broadcast images and broadcast data for a DMB service, and a public network 60 for connecting the Internet server 50 and the service provider 70.
The TV broadcast station 40 broadcasts various contents with themes through broadcast channels according to the DMB method. A TV broadcast signal that is broadcast to each channel is received by the car terminal 10, the mobile terminal (or mobile station: MS) or the home terminal (TV) 30.
The TV broadcast station 40 can broadcast the TV broadcast signal through a fixed line via the public network 60. For example, the TV broadcast station 40 stores previously broadcast contents in units of files within the Internet server 50 included in the public network 60, to allow a user of the terminal that is connected through the fixed line for viewing the broadcast contents at a convenient time.
The service provider 70 creates a broadcast schedule program log of each channel, content or a plot of each program as text data and transmits it to the TV broadcast station 40 through the public network 60, and the TV broadcast station 40 broadcasts the data through a fixedly allocated EPG channel.
The car terminal 10, the terminal (MS) 20 or the home terminal 30 can receive a schedule program log transmitted as data through the EPG channel of the TV broadcast station 40, and can selectively receive a broadcast program according to the schedule program log.
An image recording method of the terminal in accordance with a related art will now be described with reference to FIG. 2. The terminal, which has a TV broadcast reception function and a camera function, can record (save) obtained images or videos by using the functions as follows.
When the TV broadcast reception function of the terminal is selected (step S10), one of a plurality of broadcast channels is selected and a broadcast image received via the channel is outputted (step S20). A specific scene of the broadcast image outputted through a screen can be captured and stored (step S30). In addition, the broadcast image outputted on the screen of the terminal can be recorded during a certain time interval to store the corresponding video.
Meanwhile, when the camera image taking function is selected (step S40), a subject to be captured to obtain its image is selected and displayed as a preview image on the screen (step S50). When an image taking select button is pressed, a still image of the selected subject is captured and stored (step S60). If a video record function is included in the camera function, moving images (video) of the selected subject can be recorded during a pre-set time and then stored.
Accordingly, video or a still image can be stored through the TV broadcast reception function, and also videos or still images captured through the camera function can be also stored.